Folder and fastener for holding three sets of sheets



July 16, 1957 H. B. MQCLURE FOLDER AND"FASTENER FOR HOLDING THREE SE' IS OF SHEETS Filed Dec. 22, 1954 175 1 19' MZWZNZZQ method of holding such United States atent O FASTENER FOR HOLDING THREE SETS F SHEETS Hugh B. McClure, Peoria, 111., assignor to H. B. McClure Mfg. Co., Peoria, 111., a corporation of Illinois FOLDER AND My invention relates to binder folders in which documents or other papers are temporarily fastened in the folder by a hinder or fastener which is attached to the folder and has attaching tangs extending through punched openings at the margins of the documents or papers so that the documents or papers are held in a superposed relation in which each document or paper is individually accessible and may be turned like a page of a book, the invention having reference more particularly to such binder folder and the binder or fastener thereof and a documents or papers to be accumulated .in three separate individually positioned and readily distinguishable groups or sets.-

In filing and otherwise accumulating documents or papers pertaining to a particular subject matter or transaction there are oftentimes classifications thereof, such as correspondence, agreements, incidental papers and the like, which it is desirable to maintain in the same assembly, as for example in a folder, but with each classification maintained in a separate readily distinguishable group.

It is desirable that such documents or papers be temporarily fastened in place so that they or individual ones thereof may be readily removed if required and other documents or papers added to each classification from time to time, and that each individual group or set be a sufficiently distinct unit so that access and reference thereto may be had quickly and conveniently without confusion with the documents or papers of other groups or sets.

Heretofore fasteners, usually of thin metal, have been available of paired tang type in which two companion or twin tangs are spaced apart a standardized distance to be bent up to engage through openings punched through a marginal portion of the document or paper at such standardized distance apart, after which the tangs are bent down flat against the face of the outermost document or paper to retain the documents or papers in place, and such fasteners are commonly used in folders which have a fastener mounting flange at and within the fold of the folder, oftentimes in the form of a reentrant bellows type fold doubled back to provide a flange of suitable width to which the fastener may be secured.

Two pairs of tangs have been provided at the opposite sides of such attaching flange or fold, for example, as in my Patent 1,731,720, permitting two separate groups or sets of documents or papers to be attached and accumulated at the opposite sides respectively of the flange, and also a two way fastener for a somewhat similar arrangement of two groups or sets of documents or papers has been provided, as in my Patent 2,254,081, in which the fastener is permanently attached to a common folder without requiring any attaching flange, but no fastener or folder has been available heretofore having more than two places for mounting documents or papers in more than two separate groups or sets.

The principal objects of this invention are, to'provide a multiple place fastener of the above mentioned paired or twin tang type, which is adapted to accommodate documents or papers in more than two separate individualized groups; to provide a binder folder having multiple place twin tang fastening facilities arranged for attachment of documents'or papers at the fold of the folder in more sheets, are to be assembled in separate groups than two separate individualized groups all of which are contained within and covered by the folder; to provide a fastener unit for this purpose which is simple, convenient and inexpensive and readily applicable to such folder; to segregate the groups or sets so they are conspicuously separate and readily distinguishable from one another; and to provide an improved method of filing documents or papers in a binder, these and other objects being accomplished as pointed out more particularly hereinafter and as shown in the accompanying drawing, in which:

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a binder, with portions thereof broken away and one of the covers thereof raised, showing a three place fastener mounted therein in accordance with this invention;

Fig. 2 is a view similar to Fig. 1 but showing the binder in a reversed position with the other cover thereof raised;

Fig. 3 is a plan view of the fastener, the left half of which is in the original form of the fastener blank and the right half of which has a marginal portion thereof folded over in the completed form of the fastener;

Fig. 4 is a perspective view of the fastener in the completed form with some of the tangs thereof bent laterally to show more clearly the number and arrangement of the tangs;

Fig. 5 is a view, greatly enlarged, showing the binder in the position of Fig. 1 with three sets of documents or papers fastened in position therein;

Fig. 6 is a view of the binder in the reversed position of Fig. 2 with the three sets of documents or papers fastened therein as in Fig. 5; and

Fig. 7 is an enlarged fragmentary view of the assembly of Fig. 5 looking at the end of the fold to which the fastener is attached.

As shown in the drawing, the fastener, which is prefer ably made of thin bendable relatively stiif metal and capable of repeated bending without breaking, comprises a body section ltl'of elongated rectangular form having at each end three relatively long narrow tangs 11, 12 and 13 preferably with rounded outer ends which are correspondingly arranged at the ends of the body portion so that the tangs 11, 12 and 13 at the one end are paired respectively with the corresponding tangs 11, 12 and 13 at the other end and with the tangs of each pair correspondingly spaced apart a selected distance, which is preferably a conventional standardized distance commonly employed for conventional twin tang fasteners.

The tangs 11 and 12 are located at one side of the width of the section 10 and the tangs 13 at the opposite side of g the width of said section with a relatively wide gap 14 separating the tangs 13 preferably the tangs 11 are in a position overlying the tangs 12, as shown particularly at the right of Fig. 3 and as indicated in Fig. 4.

This overlying arrangement may be conveniently accomplished by making the fastener blank in the form in-- dicated at the left of Fig. 3 with a narrow notch 15, somewhat in the nature of a slit, separating the tangs 11 from the tangs 12, and thereafter folding that side edge portion 16 of the section 10 which lies between the tangs 11, along the line 17 over onto the corresponding portion of the section 10 which lies between the tangs 12 so that said portion 16 occupies the position indicated at 16, it being important that these portions be pressed into close contacting relation to one another to minimize the con joint thickness of the said two portions.

This fastener is adapted to be attached to a mounting flange or fold of a folder which has such flange or fold therein at the place where opposite sides of the folder are hinged to.one another to serve as covers between which the documents or papers, hereinafter referred to as or sets.

from the tangs 11 and 12 and- Such folders are commonly made of heavy paper scored and folded at the place of and to provide the hinging of one to the other, sometimes with a mounting flange secured thereto at the fold between thecovers and often times with such mounting flange in the form of a reentrant fold, in which latter event the covers are ,not hinged directly to one another but each is hinged by such scoring and fold respectively to the outer edges of the two layers of the reentrant fold.

The latter form of folder is shown herein for purposes of illustration and has the two cover portions 18 and 19, hereinafter referred to for convenience as the top and bottom covers respectively, integral with and hinged respectively by scored folds 2i) and 21 to the two layers of a reentrant bellows-like fold 22 which serves as a mounting flange for the above described fastener. Portions of these covers 18 and 19 are broken away for convenience of illustration but it is to be understood that, like conventional folders, they are of suflicient width and length according to the size of the sheets to be mounted therein to cover and protect the contents.

The bellows fold or mounting flange 22 has holes 23 punched therethrough, as indicated in Fig. 1, at the proper place and at the proper distance apart corresponding to the spacing of the tangs at one end of the body portion 10 from the tangs at the other end, and the fastener is attached to either side of the mounting flange 22 by either the tangs 11 or 12 which are inserted through the holes 23 from one side of the flange 22 and then bent down flat against the opposite face of said flange. Thus the fastener is not only attached to the folder but the two parts of the bellows fold 22 are clamped together thereby.

In the drawing the fastener is mounted at one side of the mounting flange thereof'in Figs. 1, and 7, and with the folded over portion 16 of the fastener remote from said flange, in which case the tangs 12 are passed through the holes 23 and bent down against one side of the flange 22 as aforesaid as shown in Fig. l. The other tangs 11 are then at the opposite side of the flange 22 as shown in Fig. 2.

The width of the body section of the fastener is such that when the fastener is attached as above explained, the tangs 13 are suificiently distant from the inner edge of the reentrant fold or flange 22 to readily accommodate beyond the inner edge of said flange 22 such width of edge portions of sheets assembled on the tangs 13 as is usually allowed in punched sheets beyond the punched openings at the mounting edge thereof and, as shown in Fig. 7, a distance greater than the width of a tang.

The tangs generally used are between three sixteenths of an inch and one quarter of an inch in width and as a specific example of the above fastener which is suitable for the purpose, the spacing 15 between the tangs 11 and 12 in the blank before folding along the line 17 is merely suflicient for convenient folding along the line 17, for example approximately one sixteenth of an inch, and the spacing 14 between the tangs 12 and 13 is approximately three quarters of an inch or substantially greater than the combined width of the two tangs 12 and 13 separated by the space 14.

Thus there are three separate places for mounting punched sheets in the folder, namely, on the tangs 12 at one side of the flange 22, on the tangs 11 at the opposite side of the flange 22, and on the tangs 13 beyond the inner edge of the flange 22.

Sheets as thus mounted are shown in Figs. 5, 6 and 7 in which one group or set 24 of sheets, which will be considered for convenience the top set of sheets, is fastened in place on the folder at one side of the flange 22 on and by means of the tangs 12, a midportion and an end port-ion of the sheets of said set 24 being broken away to disclose other sets of sheets thereunder, and another group or set 26 of sheets, considered the bottom group' or set, is fastened in place in the folder at the 22, being shown at the underside other side of the flange 22 on and by means of the tangs 11, an end portion thereof also being broken away to show part of the bottom cover 19. In addition, a third group or set 25 of sheets, considered the middle group, is fastened in place on and by means of the tangs 13, an end portion of the latter set also being broken away to show part of the bottom set 26 andcover 19 thereunder, and it will be noted that the set 25 is in a position between the sets 24 and 26 of sheets and that the upper fastened ends of the sheets of the set 25 terminate beyond the inner end of the flange 22 and accordingly do not extend thereover.

By reason of the above described arrangement of the fastener and folder, not only are three separate sets of sheets readily accommodated in the folder, but each set is sufliciently segregated from the other sets, the two' sets 24 and 26'from one another by the intervening mounting flange 22, and the set 25 by its staggered intermediate location between the sets 24 and 26, that each set is conspicuously individualized and readily distinguished from the others, and sheets of any one set may be quickly and readily located and examined without confusion with the sheets of any other set.

While I have shown and described my invention in a preferred form, I am aware that various modifications can be made therein without departing from the spirit of my invention, the scope of which is to be determined by the appended claim.

What is claimed is:

A combination folder and fastener wherein said folder comprises a folder forming sheet which is folded back upon itself to form a reentrant mounting flange and cover portions between which said flange projects inwardly, and said fastener being formed of thin bendable sheet metal material and comprising a body portion and three sheetmounting tangs projecting outwardly therefrom and each paired in alignment with a corresponding one of three other sheet-mounting tangs on two opposite extremities of said body portion, the body portion between first and second adjacent pairs of tangs being folded over on itself along a line between said adjacent pairs of tangs with the tangs of one pair substantially overlying the tangs of the other of said adjacent pairs and said folded over body portion being arranged in close face to face engagement forming a body thickness thereat of substantially twice the thickness of said sheet material, the third of said three pairs of tangs being adjacent to said second pair of tangs and spaced transversely from said two overlying pairs of tangs more than the combined width of one of said third paired tangs and one of said second pair of tangs, said folded overbody portion being located entirely on one side of said mounting flange of the folder with the body portion between said second and third pairs of tangs being arranged in engagement with said mounting flange, and said last mentioned pair of overlying tangs being arranged extending through said mounting flange in a position relative to the inner edge of said flange and the spacing of said third pair of tangs from said overlying pairs of tangs such that more than half' of said spacing lies inwardly beyond said mounting flange inner edge whereby said third pair of tangs is. spaced inwardly from said mounting flange sufliciently to provide for mounting and fastening sheets thereon with the edge of the sheets spaced from the inner edge of said mounting flange, said overlying pairs of tangs on opposite sides of said mounting flange providing for fastening two sets of sheets thereto in marginally matching and separated relation one" above the other and on opposite sides of said mounting flange.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 

